When Life Closes In: Lessons from a Chaotic August

Mar 21, 2020

While browsing through my old Tumblr posts, I stumbled upon one that brought back a flood of memories. It reminded me how writing—how simply pouring my thoughts onto a page—has always helped me face life’s hardest days. So today, I want to share one of those entries with you. It was written on September 1, 2017, during a particularly chaotic season. I hope it reminds you—like it did for me—that no storm lasts forever.

There’s an old legend about a wise king who wore a ring with a hidden inscription. Whenever he faced a serious problem, he would quietly gaze at the message engraved on his ring. In those quiet moments, the weight of his fears would lift, replaced by a sense of peace and perspective. After the king passed away, those who mourned him opened his hand to read the secret that gave him strength: “This too shall pass.”

“This too shall pass.”

Those simple words held a timeless truth: life is fleeting—both joy and pain are temporary. It’s a message I’ve carried with me ever since.

In August 2017, I didn’t know how to begin writing. But I knew I needed to—if only to clear my crowded mind. Everything was unraveling at once.

Work felt like a battlefield. The hospital was bursting at the seams, the census skyrocketing, and patients who should have been in the ICU were being managed in the med-surg unit because their families couldn’t afford higher care. The pressure was unbearable. Eight patients to one nurse—many of them ventilated, guarded, and critical. And yet, we showed up. We wore no capes, but we wore our stethoscopes like armor. We did what we could with what we had. “Toxic shift” doesn’t even begin to describe it.

And at home, things weren’t any easier. Our food business was falling apart. Two of our helpers got into a heated argument in front of customers, and Mama had no choice but to let them go. Running a business is hard. Running it without people you can trust? Nearly impossible. That week, finding reliable help felt like looking for a needle in a haystack.

As if that weren’t enough, the electric bill from VECO arrived—and I nearly fainted. With everything else piling on, figuring out how to pay it felt like the last straw. Life was closing in, fast.

But in the middle of all that chaos, I held on to a quiet voice inside me. I remembered something Helen Keller once said: “The world is full of suffering. It is also filled with overcoming it.”

I’ve lived much of my life under pressure—from work, from family, from expectations—both mine and others’. But still, I survive. And every now and then, I even thrive. Because with every trial comes a lesson. And August had plenty to teach.

I learned that acknowledging your pain is already half the battle. Naming your exhaustion, your heartbreak, your helplessness—it matters. It’s the first step to healing. I learned that everyone is struggling in some way, and our response—not our situation—defines us. Your attitude is your compass in chaos.